Posted on 08/16/2021 5:33:37 PM PDT by bitt
How the pandemic laid bare America’s diabetes crisis
COVID-19 has torn a particularly lethal path through the 1 in 10 Americans with diabetes, including many who never caught the virus. That's because when the pandemic hit, people with the chronic disease were already in worse shape than in years.
It took the deadly disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic to expose a deeper, more intractable U.S. public-health crisis: For more than a decade, the world’s richest nation has been losing the battle against diabetes.
Long before the pandemic, Kate Herrin was among the millions of Americans struggling to control their diabetes.
Her problems often stemmed from her government-subsidized medical insurance. Doctors routinely rejected her Medicaid plan, and she repeatedly ran out of the test strips she needed to manage her daily insulin injections. She cycled in and out of emergency rooms with dangerously high blood-sugar levels, or hyperglycemia.
Then COVID-19 hit. Herrin – poor and living alone – rarely left her apartment, ordering fast-food delivery instead of risking the grocery store. She stopped going in for regular lab tests. She had a harder time than ever securing medical supplies. Her health deteriorated further.
On Dec. 15, Herrin and Elicia Heaston, her best friend, were swapping messages on Facebook midday when Herrin abruptly dropped off the conversation. Heaston called Herrin’s phone and got no answer. When a few more hours passed without any word, Heaston and her husband drove from their home in rural West Alexandria, Ohio, to Herrin’s apartment nearby and pounded on the door. No lights were on, but they could hear the television.
Heaston called 911. When firefighters arrived, they found the 42-year-old dead on the bathroom floor. Herrin’s rescue dogs, Honey and Sugar, were lying quietly next to her.
The coroner attributed the heart attack that killed
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I hate to say this but dying was the better option considering the direction she was going. Heart attack is basically painless and quick. She was probably going to lose limbs, eyesight and goodness knows how bad the neuropathy would have gotten. Now she’s with God! Praise Jesus.
Excellent!
Even on Medicare the cost for Diabetic medication can be staggering plus if you need a specialist like an Endocrinologist even more so. Although the syringe and bottles are cheaper if I remember right from my ex-GF it means more shots and closer monitoring than the pen type which can run $500 plus a month for Insulin like a Tresiba Pen if you have no insurance or it doesn't cover it. Some Diabetics require at least two different Insulins adding to the cost the second being a sliding scale pre-meal pen. The strips aren't real expensive but the 15 day monitors are out of reach for most. Those monitors mean no skin pricking several times a day plus an alert system if sugar goes high or low.
Being on Medicare and/or Medicaid doesn't gaurantee a doctor will take you as a new patient. I know from my own experiences dealing with my late wife and my own health issues but hers were far more serious as she was a quadriplegic. Back in the 2000's we lost our doctor because the medical group closed some offices and laid off doctors. This was in Tennessee. For over six months we went without a primary care doctor. I spent hours calling different doctors. However because at that time we were both Medicare and Tenncare patients {Tenncare had replaced Medicaid thanks to Gore and Hillary} no doctor would take the pay cut to see us. We were both disabled. So yes it can happen to someone.
If a person is disabled during the first two years they are on Medicaid only. It takes two more years AFTER being approved for disability usually retroactive to filing date to be on Medicare.
Then also if Medicare only and Diabetic there is another issue. The meds are expensive even on Part D. What happens is you have a basic $3500 a year allowance on medications then you hit a place where from $3500-$8000??? limit it becomes out of pocket basically until you reach the upper limit and it pays all IIRC. A bad Diabetic will a lot of times have multiple co-existing conditions which rack it up even more. I'm just telling the realities of it.
I can understand how it could happen especially with the lockdown we had going on. Disability for most people including myself is not the gold mine many think it is but sometimes there is no other choice. I'm no longer on Medicaid/Tenncare and after my Medicare premium I draw about $830 a month total and still make co-pays. Thankfully I am not Diabetic but my disability Inner Ear and Brain related sensory processing issues I have some medical cost especially if my primary care Doc needs to do a Cover His Butt test such as CT scans etc.
I’m always shocked how little people with diabetes actually know about the disease that they have. They just know “take this pill morning and night.”
Recently ran a DKA call. Blood sugar was 475. Patient, upon hearing that stated “well I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.”
For example, many years ago if they took a readings below 140 after fasting overnight; you were OK. Then it dropped to 130; then to 120 ; now they are using 100.
IMHO Using the 100 or lower measurement is going to make plenty of healthy people type 2 diabetics.
Very true indeed they did move the mark. My wife before disability hit was a CNA for 5 years and the allowed numbers were in fact higher like you said.
In my humble opinion, these two videos are the best introduction to
1) Why we need more discrimination in what we eat and how often, https://youtu.be/RuOvn4UqznU and.
2) How we’ve become so mislead about diabetes, and how to better recognize and treat it. https://youtu.be/6zZBiTfIp4Q
They’re both current, witty, but the second gets technical in a few places
Very good points.
In addition to your Dr. Pradip J. videos here are some additional low-carb/reversing Type 2 diabetes resources:
Documentary movie...”Fat Fiction” (free streamng on “Tubi”):
https://tubitv.com/movies/526849/fat-fiction
Sten Ekberg on YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/drekberg/videos
Dr. Jason Fung on YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/drjasonfung1/videos
Dennis Pollock on YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmKsQWqGmDPIWgrVqGYbc3w/videos
Thomas DeLauer on YT: https://youtu.be/l6ROYhvxOvI
Thanks for setting things straight.
Agreed.
At Walmart test srtips are about 20 dollars amonth, a tester is 20 bucks. Needles are 20 bucks a month. For 60 bucks all testing material is available. The insulin is available via medicaide funding.
This is pure propaganda.
America is not losing the battle. This woman lost her own battle , due to lack of discipline it sounds like.Ate the wrong stuff.A diabetic can eat cheaply, veggies and protein.Very little starch. Minimal dairy.
I know, I am diabetic.
Load of crap here. Preparing for the launch of another BIG GOV aid program from the Nanny State.
Not necessarily...some develop 'latent autoimmune diabetes' as adults...this happened to my wife, who didn't start taking insulin until she was in her 40's. Even then; her PCP had her labeled 'type2' for years, although she wasn't overweight. She FINALLY got access to an amazing endo who just looked at her and said 'You're not type 2.' He was right...developed into type 1 as an adult. Still looks great...not a bit overweight.
My wife just goes to the Pharmacist and askes for what she wants and they give us how many we want of Novolin_N. I use the long acting kind most times but the 70/30 works well also. This is a deal through WalMart as far as I know. No doctors involved.
I've told many people about this deal and most don't bother looking into it. They keep complaining that they have no insurance and it costs too much. It's like they don't believe me or something.
I spend about $100-125 a month for 4-5 vials. I believe a homeless person could pay for themselves. I live in Texas so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. My wife worked for a lawyer with Diabetes and he told us about the program. I worry that if too many people find out about it they will stop, but I've been using it for 8-10 years now.
I don’t ever remember seeing an adult diabetic who was thin unless they started as a child or teenager so you got me to some research!
Found this interesting.
https://www.diabetes.org/diabetes/genetics-diabetes
My mom was the same. Developed type 1 diabetes at 55. My brother is also type 1 but his started at age 13.
She was extremely sick, and going downhill fast. Her primary doc acted like it was all in her head but she knew (because she’d had a son with it) that something was very off. We took her to my brother’s endocrinologist who diagnosed her. She had to do insulin shots, regular blood checks, etc, and the turnaround was remarkable. We had to explain to every doc and nurse after that that she had adult-onset type 1, not type 2.
She died 10 years later of ALS. Another disease that took half a year to diagnose.
People lived healthy and fit lives long before the Keto cult (who along with the Vegans can go jump out a window).
People lived healthy and fit lives long before the Keto cult (who along with the Vegans can go jump out a window).
What changed is increased seed oil consumption, and with that, the amount of omega 6 fats in people’s bodies.
Great post! If you have been diagnosed as type-2, but are not overweight; you might check with an endo to see if you are actually a type-1...the PROPER treatment protocol could really improve your life.
Let me clarify what I said, it’s the proselytizers of Keto and Veganisn who are irritating, not those who go about quietly with their dietary habits.
Crazy thing is, she wasn’t even diagnosed with type 2, just hypothyroid and hypertension. They never ran the right tests on her. She asked for fasting blood tests and the like, but thankfully she had good relationship with my brothers doc and he took her seriously.
You are right about that!
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